Nose

The nose figures in scripture in three distinct registers: as a part subject to ritual blemish, as a place for ornament, and as a target of mutilation in oracles of judgment. A handful of texts also use it figuratively for control, scent, or insensibility.

Blemish and Idol Insensibility

Among the disqualifications for priestly service is a flat nose: "For whatever man he is who has a blemish, he will not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he who has a flat nose, or anything superfluous" (Lev 21:18). The mockery of idols turns on the same body-part: idols have noses but cannot smell — "They have ears, but they don't hear; They have noses, but they don't smell" (Ps 115:6).

Nose-Jewels and Ornament

The proverb on beauty without discretion turns on a snout-ring: "[As] a ring of gold in a swine's snout, [So is] a beautiful woman who is without discretion" (Prov 11:22). In Isaiah's catalog of women's finery, nose-jewels appear among "the rings, and the nose-jewels" (Isa 3:21). The same ornament features in Ezekiel's allegory of Yahweh adorning Jerusalem as a bride: "And I put a ring on your nose, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head" (Ezek 16:12).

Hooked and Mutilated

Yahweh's word against Sennacherib pictures the king led home like a draft animal: "Because of your raging against me [my Speech], and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came" (2 Kgs 19:28). The judgment against Oholibah includes mutilation in kind: "And I will set my jealousy against you, and they will deal with you in fury; they will take away your nose and your ears; and your remainder will fall by the sword: they will take your sons and your daughters; and your remainder will be devoured by the fire" (Ezek 23:25).